THE VICTIMS: Selma Goncalves

In the few hours of the day when she wasn’t working or learning English, Selma Goncalves loved to dance the samba, her family and friends said. The outgoing 20-year-old had often performed on stage as part of a dance troupe in her native Cape Verde, and when she moved to Brockton 13 months ago, she loved going to clubs with her friends to dance.

By Maria Papadopoulos

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Maria Papadopoulos

Posted Jun. 9, 2010 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 9, 2010 at 9:14 AM

By Maria Papadopoulos

Posted Jun. 9, 2010 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 9, 2010 at 9:14 AM

BROCKTON

» Social News

In the few hours of the day when she wasn’t working or learning English, Selma Goncalves loved to dance the samba, her family and friends said.

The outgoing 20-year-old had often performed on stage as part of a dance troupe in her native Cape Verde, and when she moved to Brockton 13 months ago, she loved going to clubs with her friends to dance.

“She was a warm person, never really bothered anybody,” her half-brother, Matthew DaSilva, 19, of Easton, said quietly Thursday afternoon from his father’s Brockton home.

Dressed in black, dozens of people were at the home mourning Goncalves, who was killed by a gunman in a deadly shooting rampage on Clinton Street on Wednesday afternoon.

She was fatally wounded by a man, who authorities say, had raped and later shot her sister. Her sister, who was critically wounded, underwent surgery at a Boston Hospital Thursday afternoon. The Enterprise is not publishing her name because she is the victim of a sex crime.

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Looking at Goncalves’s high school graduation photograph from Cape Verde showing the brown-eyed teenager with dark, curly hair in red cap and gown, her father broke down crying.

“A very positive girl,” said Madueno Goncalves, 49, a truck driver who has lived in Brockton for two decades.

Selma Goncalves worked at a Zoots dry cleaning store in Brockton while learning English, and she planned to go to college, he said.

“She was planning to get a higher degree so she could get a good job helping people,” he said.

Lori Pontes of Boston cried as she recalled Goncalves, whom she had known since kindergarten. The friends were part of a dance troupe in Cape Verde.

“She had a commanding presence. She was very mature for her age,” said Pontes, 20. “She had a very good sense of humor, very kind, always smiling.”

Pontes said her friend’s mother, Fatima Correia, who lives in Cape Verde, is still asking about her, even though she has been told of her death.

“We tell her (Selma is) gone. She still asks you, ‘Is she OK? Is she going to survive?’” Pontes said.